The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the big, bold, and beautiful sequel you hoped for and is sure to bewitch you for countless hours.

The province of Skyrim might be frigid, but the role-playing game that takes place within it burns with a fire few games possess. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you take up arms against dragons, and your encounters with them are invariably exciting--yet depending on where your adventure takes you, such battles may not even represent the pinnacle of your experience. A side quest that starts as a momentary distraction may turn into a full-fledged tale that could form the entirety of a less ambitious game. Yes, Skyrim is another enormous fantasy RPG from a developer that specializes in them, and it could suck up hundreds of hours of your time as you inspect each nook and crevasse for the secrets to be found within. If you know Bethesda Softworks' previous games, you might be unsurprised that Skyrim is not a land without blemish, but rather harbors any number of technical glitches and frustrating idiosyncrasies that tear open the icy veil that blankets the land. Many of them are ones Elder Scrolls fans will probably see coming, but they're ultimately a low price to pay for the wonders of a game this sprawling and enthralling. Prepare for many sleepless nights to come.

Those nights traversing these lands are ones well spent. The game returns you to the continent of Tamriel, where you explore the northern realm called Skyrim, home to the Nord race. In these northern regions, snow flurries cloud your view, and platforms of ice float on the chilled waters. Nighttime often brings Tamriel's version of the aurora borealis, with its gorgeous blue and green ribbons stretching across the heavens. Skyrim's predecessor, Oblivion, featured prototypical fantasy environments--pretty but not quite evocative of the lore's darker undercurrents. Skyrim embraces its darker elements. You might feel an eerie chill as you glimpse a half-sunken ship through the mist, or watch as a dragon comes to life before your very eyes under the swirling firmament. Skyrim's atmospheric tone harks back to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, only the hazy dust storms of the earlier game have been replaced by glimmering snowfall and opaque fog.

These lovely vistas are best seen from a distance. Closer inspection reveals plenty of hard edges, ugly painted-on textures, and other visual flaws that are awfully conspicuous should you seek them out. But like many enormous games, Skyrim makes a fantastic impression not because its individual elements are sharply honed, but because they contribute to a grander whole. There's so much to do that your quest log becomes an embarrassment of pleasures, offering dozens of choices at any given time, each one as enticing as the next. You could follow the story, of course, which weaves a compelling tale that casts you as a dragonborn; that is, the soul of a dragon emanates from within you. As such, you are the key to discovering why dragons have returned to the land, terrorizing cities and potentially ending the known world. The tale has you facing dragons, of course, but also crashing fancy dress parties and scouring sewers in search of a key figure long assumed dead. It's a well-crafted tale that makes good use of those fearsome flying creatures that horrify the masses with roaring gusts of fire and ice.

Turn back: there be dragons here.

Even when you aren't pursuing story quests, though, the core narrative dogs you as you trot across the land on foot or on horseback. You might travel to a quaint hamlet only to discover that it's under siege by a hovering beast. The townspeople join you, aiming their arrows and fireballs upward, and not all of them may survive the encounter. These battles impress upon you the terror in which the populace lives, and thus give you a reason to be a hero to them. But plenty of narrative delights have nothing to do with dragons, and some of them could have formed the main story of a lesser RPG. Following an early lead takes you to a lonely house occupied by a single child with a disturbing request. The story that unravels has you acting as a predator and eavesdropping from an unimaginably sinister hiding place. Other story threads embrace the element of choice. You can take sides in the ongoing conflict between Imperial forces and the rebellious Stormcloaks, and then assault enemy camps and rescue prisoners jailed by the enemy. And in one memorable if minor quest line, you can kill a creepy cannibal--or join her and her cohorts at the table.

It's impressive enough that there's so much to do; it's even more impressive that most of it is wonderful. Not every dungeon is a joy to explore. Stone-turning puzzles occasionally bring the fun to a halt, and a few repeated cave designs could dampen your spirits. But overall, every task has an excellent sense of context, and surprises lurk around many a turn. Searching for a lost dog turns into a grander quest than you could have guessed--and witty writing and voice acting shine some light into this somber world. Even a simple "go there, kill that" bounty can be a thrill. After all, how often do you face a towering giant and a couple of woolly mammoths? It's too bad that as you approach the giant's camp, one of those mammoths might spawn 100 feet in the air and fall to its death, or land on another mammoth and ride on its back for a few seconds before sliding off.

Zombies are scary. Zombies on fire are scary, and warm.

So maybe not every surprise is a welcome one. But most are, and the element of the unexpected is what lures you to explore as much as you can. The reward could be a great weapon hidden in a locked chest, a gorgeous vista to ogle, or a book of lore that enhances one of your attributes. Or perhaps you'll discover words written in the dragons' tongue--an important discovery indeed. Finding those words is key to using Skyrim's most powerful spells, known as shouts. Well, they are half the key anyway: you also must defeat dragons and absorb their souls to activate those shouts. Shouts have their own cooldown timer and aren't tied to the magicka bar that governs standard spellcasting. With one shout, you can breathe fire on your attackers. With another, you can slow down time. Shouts hardly guarantee success in a difficult battle, but they can tip the scales in your favor. Besides, the dramatic visual and sound effects of both the discovery of words and the absorption of a dragon soul are a lovely bonus.

As for standard spells, they come in the usual schools of magicka: destruction (zap skeletons with sparks!), conjuration (summon a giant frost atronach!), alteration (light the way ahead!), and so on. You can even dual-wield spells, going full-on mage, with a glowing ball of fire in one hand and a summon at the ready in the other. For that matter, you can dual-wield one-handed weapons, giving you more flexibility in how you form your character. When you create your character, you choose a race from the usual Elder Scrolls standbys (Dark Elf, Breton, Argonian, and so forth), but you don't choose a class. Rather, your skill level with certain types of weapons, magicka schools, speech, and so on is governed primarily by how you play. Wear heavy armor, and taking blows gradually increases your heavy armor proficiency. Swing two-handed weapons, and you get better at using them.

That doesn't mean that you don't wield manual control over how you progress. Each time you gain a level, you choose to enhance one of your three main attributes: health, stamina, or magicka. You also earn a single point to spend on a perk, which might increase damage done with axes or let you conjure creatures at a greater distance. It's a great leveling system that forms around the way you play, but allows for tweaking so that you retain a sense of control. Even just the act of leveling up can be a pleasure due to the slick and colorful interface that imagines perks as stars in constellations. It can be a pain to navigate to certain perks; the game often has you flitting not to the star you want, but to all the ones surrounding it. But considering Oblivion's cumbersome interface, Skyrim's is a much improved beast. On console (and if you play with a controller on the PC), thumbstick navigation minimizes button presses, and you can easily move between your quest log and the main map. Additionally, you can mark weapons, spells, and items as favorites and then access them quickly during combat. Certain aspects might be fiddly, but on the whole, Skyrim's interface is a wonder, considering how much information and inventory is at your fingertips.

Regardless of how you tailor your character, the action is entertaining and varied. Trolls, undead draugrs, necromancers, bandits, witches, ratlike skeevers, and many more foes want to make your hero a zero. You occasionally feel as if you're flailing blindly rather than connecting your sharp blade with a vampire's flesh. But this is the tightest Elder Scrolls combat yet, the visual and audio cues normally providing proper feedback with your blows and zaps. Some death blows result in Fallout 3-style slow-motion kills, which retain their power because they're not overly frequent. Movement, too, has seen improvement: you can now play from a third-person view and feel like you're moving across the land instead of floating above it. What hasn't been improved is the friendly AI. It's nice to have a companion along for the adventure, and you're given one for free early in the story. But companions are morons, crowding you in tight passages, lagging behind when you need them the most, and even getting stuck in various death loops caused by spinning blade traps.

If you're the stealthy type, you can sneak about, picking pockets and breaking into homes. If you really enjoy keeping to the shadows, you may even wish to contract porphyric hemophilia--that is, vampirism. Vampires earn some benefits by way of certain spells and status effects, but also endure particular risks and must feed on unsuspecting victims as they slumber. But even if you like to wade directly into the fray, you can benefit from Skyrim's non-combat activities. Lock-picking no longer works as it did in Oblivion, but takes its cue from Fallout 3, having you rotate a lock pick and turn the lock to determine how closely you matched the correct position. As before, you can pick flowers and collect ingredients, and then create potions out of them at an alchemy table. (Forget mortars and pestles this time around.) And any adventurer can benefit from enchanting, which lets you imbue your equipment with certain status effects--though you must use soul gems to recharge their power.

Some interiors are meticulously detailed.

Many of Skyrim's delights are the touches that occur outside of the action. Citizens go about their daily lives, selling their wares in shops during the day and closing down at night to hang out in the pub or head home to rest. Under some circumstances, they may comment on your rancid breath or remark on how sickly you seem to look. Children run up and down the streets; one may even ask for you to stop a bully from picking on him. Citizens move somewhat stiffly, but with more grace than in previous Elder Scrolls games. Before, conversations brought the world to a halt and focused the camera on some character's waxy face. In Skyrim, certain dialogues limit the camera and temporarily paralyze you in place, but overall, conversations feel more organic than before--a nice improvement that enhances your sense of immersion.

Skyrim also uses scattered books and references to enthrall you. You may not be a big fan of reading books in role-playing games, but even so, you should make an effort here. If you don't feel like reading up on Tamriel's rich history each time you find a volume, grab it and read it later--there are a lot of narrative tidbits that deserve to be read. Elder Scrolls fans will appreciate nods to events in prior games, and everyone can enjoy the bite-size tales contained therein, about vampires, noble heroes, and gods that bestow their blessings on their followers. Skyrim takes place hundreds of years after the events of Oblivion, and organizations you might remember have been restructured or are shadows of their former selves. But Tamriel's history is threaded throughout Skyrim's fabric, and some quests, such as one that begins with an invitation to a faraway museum, are great reminders of past misfortunes that the world has not forgotten.

Flame atronachs are helpful for taking the heat off of you should you need a moment to heal. Or flee in terror.

It's a pity that Skyrim often breaks the immersion it tries so hard to create, in ways both minor and major. Some bizarre details are simply annoying. A character might initiate conversation through the ceiling. The chatter of nearby characters could drown out important story exposition. Two shopkeepers standing next to each other may be voiced by the same actor and repeat the same lines. A dragon skeleton might disappear and then later drop out of the sky in a new location. A dragon could get stuck in place, flailing about in the geometry in a mess of wings and tail. For that matter, you could get stuck in the environment, maybe just by walking into a corner, which forces you to either quick-travel to a different location (if you're lucky enough to be outdoors) or load a save game. Frame rate drops are uncommon, but you might encounter a few severe ones, and Xbox 360 system crashes might occur. The question isn't whether you will experience anomalies--it's a given. The question is: which ones and how many?

If you've played previous Elder Scrolls games, glitches and oddities don't come as a surprise. Nevertheless, Skyrim comes in a year graced with multiple quality RPGs that feature tighter combat, fewer bugs, better animations, and so forth. But to be fair, none of those games are endowed with such enormity. Yet The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim doesn't rely on sheer scope to earn its stripes. It isn't just that there's a lot to do: it's that most of it is so good. Whether you're slashing a dragon's wings, raising the dead back to life, or experimenting at the alchemy table, Skyrim performs the most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of time to vanish before you know it.

Oh, mr Dragonborn. You want to be a chef at this restaurant? Well, instead of serving the guests or cooking for us I guess I can just send you to this dungeon to find my legendary spoon that I always make my soup with. And NO OTHER SPOON IN THE WORLD WILL DO ANYTHING so if I don't get it we'll get bankrupt. Btw, the dungeon is full of draugr but since you're here to become a chef I guarantee that you're a good fighter... right?

You're back with the spoon! You are now officially a chef at this restaurant, except you won't be doing anything here. But please take this unique armor/weapon/gold and gtfo (repeat 120 times)

The story too isn't that good. Every character in all of Skyrim is just a poorly written, boring, lifeless creature. It also doesn't help that half of all the voice actors are terrible. Everything else in this review might be true but not those two points.

@galentv Ever realize that its just your opinion ? If you think about it in video games as A WHOLE have no better stories, no large or (small worlds) with games like the order 1886 out...I'd say on awhole skyrim is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better title and a significant upgrade from just 5 years prior w/ oblivion, ever stop to think that not everybody wants the same type of game ? a platformer with 30 hours ...oh yay I hopped, I skipped and I danced to the end of the level..and speaking of repetitiveness monster hunter, mario, I mean you can pretty much think of ANY game (across any genre) pretty much has its cons, I'm not arguing your wrong or right infact I'm arguing ones opinion of story and gameplay really comes down to ...oh yea (opinion) thats the same for music, movies, television, literature (comics or novels) video games, I mean ANYTHING I guess the only medium within arts * entertainment that you could consider to be factual...is sports cause with sports it really IS stats, percentages, graphs and comparisons "this guy has more yardage then this guy ..so this season he has performed better" thats about the only form of entertainment we can actually make side by side comparisons and use facts to support an opinion of whos better...but any other form of art...like WHO is the best guitarist (rawr rawr rawr internet elites argue it out like pro's on countless youtube videos) same w/ this...one may HATE grand theft auto 3, 4, 5 (and everything in between) ME ME ME ! (stands up w/ hand in the air) but then turn around and love ES V: skyrim legendary edition bugs and all...I've played IT through more then I can say for alot of stand alone single player adventures...but then again thats just me.

Its funny how many people complain about skyrim bugs!!! If i remember all games have bugs, mainly GTA games, they have loads of them and you guys are saying all the time GTA games deserve 10s... I never saw any game with so many bugs like GTA 3, vice city and san andreas, and all people say the games deserve 10s... Bugs are a normal things in games get over it, no game can be perfect its impossible. The games who have less bugs are metal gears you almost dont any game in the intire game main in mgs 4 and mgs 2.

@WillyWynn GTA 4 got 10 and it had AI issues and bugs. But because it had a great story, great voice acting, tonnes of stuff for you to do and most importantly it was fun, it got 10/10. A game could be perfect, completely glitch free, but if it isn't fun and there's not allot for you to do then it's going to get a low score. At the end of the day its how fun a game it that gets it the score it has. The problem is when glitches render the game unplayable, from what I have seen, Skyrim is playable even with these problems. A game that big is going to have some problems one way or another.

@WillyWynn I have it on pc and only noticed a few bugs here and there.Nothing serious or game breaking.But some PS3 users were having serious issues.If a company makes a game for a console/pc it should work.No ifs,and or buts.I've gotten so many hundreds of hours out of Bethesda's games I'm willing to accept minor issues.But if someone pays $50.-$60. and can't even play it that's not okay.

Skyrim is more beautiful to look at than Morrowind was, and that is just about the only way it has the upper hand. Morrowind was true freedom. You could kill important NPCs that you felt couldn't co-exist with the role you had picked for your character. Skyrim doesn't even let you make your own spells! Skyrim simplified the talent system to a degree that takes away from the feeling of depth in the game. Removed attributes like Acrobatics and Mystisim. There was a great feeling of satisfaction to make a custom spell so strong that you had to use potions to increase your max mana just to be able to cast it a single time, and then be able to jump 50 feet in the air and nuke the town below you with it.

Played for a couple weeks, couldn't really get into it. To me the storyline and the factions weren't as interesting to me as in Oblivion. Also at the end of the main quest, I felt it wasn't as rewarding as it's predecessors.

Over ambitious and as a result, super buggy. It is becoming increasingly evident that Bethesda is attempting to create next generation games on current gen consoles. The sad thing is they are only going to try and add even more and continue to release bugged games when the next gen finally does come around.

And the public were the official beta testers for Skyrim.

The game is huge and rich with lore and content but 9 or so patches later and it still suffers terribly from bugs. Especially the infamous ash piles that have been 'fixed' 3 times yet still never disappear even on a new game.

It gains points for being First Person though. I HATE Third Person games with a passion, they always feel so impersonal. Third person and immersion? Impossible.

Ultimately Skyrim is like the girl you desperately love but she keeps f#cking other guys behind your back and ends up giving you the clap

Skyrim in a nutshell, Huge open landscape, limited interaction, play-rewind mechanics, meaning you go to a dungeon,cave,temple,fortress, kill the monsters,bad guys, loot, rinse and repeat, as for story, sucks. too generic, never wanted to finish it, and didn't feel like I made a difference when I did. DLC, dumb, why give me the power to build a house, then only have a few plots of land to put it on, I wanted mine on top of a F*****G mountain! Never ran into any glitches... Honestly I could care less for Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Oblivion was better in my book. Nothing is structured, its like go anywhere and do whatever you want. but do what exactly, I have a huge world and all i can do is swing my sword and pick S**T up? Kill-Loot-Repeat. The world is good looking don't get me wrong, its just I couldn't get into this at all compared to Oblivion - Morrowind. And I'm a big Elder Scrolls fan, Day one purchase! But oh well maybe next one will be good. or possibly Fallout 4, structured like the story in New Vegas, because obsidian is way better at story telling than Betheseda. For now ill stick with my Dark Souls... Now that's a great game (LOST3500) If anyone wants to duel in the Souls that's my gamertag! Peace!

I came here after several attempts at starting this game only to get bored and stop playing. I listen to the review and agree with most of it. Great scenery, choice, open world, plenty to explore. But I keep thinking that is all good but I still don't want to play this game. There is something seriously missing, and I am a massive RPG fan. It is the only type of game I can truly lose myself in. I don't find it hard to turn Skyrim off though, in fact most of the time I find it hard not to turn it off. I just feel this is more the idea of them saying, "Here is a massive world for you to explore." and that is that. They tack some story onto the game but overall it is just you wandering through caves and for what? So you can go search more caves? There has to be something holding you in the world you are exploring and I haven't found what it is yet. If I don't find it soon I doubt I will be bothered to find out what it is.

I have a problem with this game. I find it really boring a lot of the time, and I try not to; mostly when there are conversations between the characters and I. The biggest problem I have with the game isn't necessarily the bugs in the game, it's the character animations that take me out of the immersion; in general, whether that be facial or body. The greatest thing the game can do is put you in the wilderness; it's somewhat calming.

I have yet to beat it of course, as well as hours and hours of side missions. That's just my personal take on it from all that I have done in the game, which is merely a few hours in, without much of the story. I can't really put too much criticism towards it since I haven't experienced all that can be experienced, but from the few hours I've played of it, I know what I can say about the things I have played, and I feel I know what to expect.

There is quite a lot of positive stuff to say, but my problems outweigh the positives, though not through quantity, but through quality. I wish when it comes to next-gen, when they make an Elder Scrolls game, they keep the world as large as Skyrim, at most, but work on the animations; character interactions (not necessarily from a dialogue or voice acting perspective), and just an overall graphics update; I think that'll help me become a lot more immersed in the world, which is one of the large attractions of Elder Scrolls games I believe.

I know many people can look past these things, but it's not something that I can be okay with. If I'm not immersed one way or another, I'm bored. I don't own this game, I am now, and again, borrowing it from my brother. I just turned it off, and I have to say that it was a bit more bearable. As long as I have no agenda with other games, and I can sit down and enjoy this, I think it'll help; unfortunately, now that won't be possible. I just got Crysis 3.

I had a blast playing through Skyrim. The complaints I have are the amount of bugs plaguing the game and the really low difficulty. Skyrim was just was too easy. Tho all and all I really the enjoyed the game

I think skyrim is an overall great game. I could play it for hours. I like the overall controls and the easy navigation from spell to item. this game isnt perfect though. I do not like the long loading time, it is excessive and takes away from the game. The loading time is so ridiculusly long that after a while I dont really want to play anymore.. And I also do not like the frequent glitches. You get stuck in rivers and rocks and buildings, it gets to the point where you have go to the last checkpoint after all the progress you have made throughout the game. Other than those things I think it is a great game. It is the first elder scrolls game I have played, i like the series and am looking forward to an other.

I don't see why people are praising this game, I thought there was nothing fun about it. To me, oblivion was the best game I have ever played (along with Fallout 3) so I was very excited for this game, so it was a HUGE disappointment for me. But everyone has their own opinion, it just makes me wonder because I have never met anyone who dislikes this.

I look at the review and user scores and can't believe there are this many gamers who are willing to overlook so many bugs, and I'm not talking about graphical glitches, I mean spending hours on a quest only to not be able to finish it because of some programmer error. Having to kill an important player because of a character programming glitch. It goes on and on and on. Don't get me wrong, this would definitely deserve this much praise if it wasn't so frustratingly flawed. I played to level 48 and completed the Dragonslayer quest along with most of the major quests and 65% of the side quests. I stayed neutral as long as I could but eventually had to choose a side, so I joined the Stormcloaks, however I'd had it with the bugs and quit before taking part in the civil war. I played a great deal of the game. It's one thing to get frustrated with a game because it's difficult, if fairly so. That's just gaming 101. I think people are stuck in some sort of denial induced by the hype of the game. When everything is going AS IT SHOULD this game is f'ing great, way to easy, but great. Not worth $60. Wait till it comes down to half that, and you won't feel cheated.

Dawnguard is a great addition to skyrim. I did the vampire story line and had lots of fun playing as the lord vampire. If you don't mind having to feed once a day I strongly recommend that story line. If you are a werewolf you can always go back to being the werewolf after you are done feeding on the humans. :P

Skyrim is a game of skill you will know if you have played oblivion, you start of as a convict ready to get exicuted wich i didnt really get, you will really enjoy this game if you liked the fallout games, if you never played any of the elderscrolls or fallout i really recomend it and the add on dawngaurd is really good just make sure you ether have a good level or good armour or wepons thanks.

Skyrim, and the Elder Scrolls, are special games.There's no need quipping about little bugs and tiny glitches that supposedly draw you away from the overall experience. The games are 20 years old almost, and the lore built up and the amount of back information created is one to match epic book stories such as the Lord of the Rings.The big picture is what we see, and will always want to see.